The council involved in the long-running strike by bin workers has been granted an interim injunction it says will ensure that picketing and protests at its three depots is in accordance with legal provisions.
Birmingham City Council said the injunction, which is in place until Thursday when a further hearing will take place, sets out expected behaviour from pickets and aims to prevent the obstruction of vehicles leaving the depots.
Members of Unite have been on all-out strike since March 11 in a row over pay and jobs, leading to bags of refuse piling up across the city.
The council said: “The council must now work to resume weekly collections and reduce the recent build-up of waste experienced in the city.
“Our priority is to deliver a reliable waste service to the people of Birmingham.
“We have seen an increase in disruption at our depots, with workers and vehicles being prevented from doing their jobs. This has in turn led to a backlog of approximately 12,800 tonnes of waste on the streets.
“The council has been negotiating with Unite since the start of this strike around the behaviours we have seen at our depots, and whilst everyone has a right to protest, the council has a public health duty to uphold and clearing waste is central to this.
“We believe that these actions are in breach of the law. As a result, the council issued Unite’s lawyers with a letter before action at the start of the week. We were subsequently given assurances in writing that there would be a change at the depots.
“This has not happened and they have breached those reassurances this morning by again not allowing our trucks to leave.
“Therefore, the council has taken the decision to proceed with an application to the High Court for a legal injunction to restrict the unlawful behaviour. This is not something we wanted to do and have given Unite many opportunities to co-operate with us and avoid this course of action.
“The health and safety of the people of Birmingham is vitally important and the council has been forced to take this action to prevent waste accumulating across our city, impacting deprived communities the most.”
Unite maintains picketing has been lawful.
